How to Avoid Distraction when you’re Striving for Personal or Professional Success

23rd March 2018

Let yourself bloom

Today I wanted to create some space to explore a few simple and effective ways to help you to avoid distraction and remain focused, particularly if you’re striving for personal or professional success – in whatever form that may take!

‘Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules and build a life you’re proud to live.’ – Anne Sweeney

This is a subject I often review with my clients and having spent the last six months enrolled on a coaching and mentoring course, I’ve certainly had to make a few changes to support myself on my own journey.

If you’re wishing to avoid distraction and get super focused on your goals here are four things you could look at. As with everything I share here on Candy Pop, please feel free to develop the ideas that resonate and combine them with the things that already work for you. We’re all so beautifully unique so one size never fits all!

Reflect

One thing you can do to support yourself when you’re striving for personal or professional success is to regularly reflect on your progress. By pausing to ask yourself what worked and what didn’t, you can establish if any changes need to be made.

For example, if you’ve had an unproductive day you could look at what happened to identify if you need to make any tweaks or changes. It’s valuable to be open, curious, honest and most of all non-judgemental with yourself and your progress, that way you’ll be better placed to identify the things that are holding you back.

Focus

I like the phrases ‘follow your own path’ and ‘stay in your own lane’ because they conjure up a strong visual image of personal space and remind me to block out the noise and distraction of others. There will always be someone doing or achieving more, so it’s important that we don’t lose sight of our own goal or we might end up running in someone else’s race!

If you notice things are hampering your ability to remain focused, then take the necessary steps to remove them. This may include simple things like setting times to be online or watching television or more drastic actions like removing apps from your phone! Never be afraid to push back and take control of your life and your time.

Simplify

Simplifying generally makes life easier. In fact, when we look at our lives and how we’re spending our time, we often discover new and exciting ways to approach things resulting in a calmer and more joyful day.

If you’re wishing to remove distractions you could look at your schedule, your online activity and your physical environment. There are always adjustments to be made and if we hold onto the belief that we have the power to make changes then anything is possible!

Motivate

And finally, to give yourself the best chance of achieving the personal and professional success you’re striving for, it’s valuable to establish ways to motivate yourself. This is particularly important if you’re working alone or towards a long-term goal. The more motivated you are the less likely you are to be distracted.

As with everything, how to approach this will differ from person to person, and so it’s good to take the time to consider what motivates you. This could range from compiling a playlist of positive music, to creating a vision board of your goals and what reaching them will look and feel like. It’s great to have things in place for the more challenging days.

• • •

Working towards any goal doesn’t need to be difficult, and there are so many things you can do to support yourself. Over the past year, I’ve experimented with all kinds of techniques to maintain a positive mindset because I find it strengthens my motivation and fuels my creativity.

If you’re working towards a personal or professional goal, I wish you the very best of luck. I hope you have a beautiful and inspiring day and the blossom is blooming for you!

Coaching and a season of growth

This is my final post before the Easter holidays, and I will be spending much of April supporting my new clients. I have a few slots remaining, so if you’re striving for growth in your life, career or business, and seeking some guidance and accountability then I would love to work with you.

For further details, please visit my coaching pages and client testimonials. You can also contact me by email (coaching@natashadenness.co.uk) to set up a free 30-minute no obligation introductory call. I very much look forward to hearing from you and supporting you on this exciting journey!

Some really valuable tips, the focus one particularly strikes a chord, I can often get distracted by what other people are doing and fall into a comparison trap, but I’ve learnt to turn social media off or turn away and be grateful for what I’ve got and achieved. x

I’m sorry to hear that, Stacey. Shedding some light on our fears – either by writing them down or talking to someone can help to disperse them. Another technique is to focus on our achievements, taking strength from the times when we were doing well. If you ever want to chat further, please feel free to get in touch. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a lovely Easter weekend!